Sometimes you have to travel abroad and these long haul flights can often take up to as long as 18 hours. With the connecting flights and the work trouble you are bound to find yourself restless. However, there is still some room to get yourself a little relaxed during the flight. You can have a shut eye or a full 8 hours to 10 hours sleep on these long haul flights. The thing is that there are certain tips that one needs to keep in mind before they start sleeping on a long haul flight.
We have done this job of listing a few travel tips for a good night sleep on long haul flights down below.
Book the window seat
For those of you who plan to sleep instead of doing some work on your long haul flight, then we recommend that you take a seat that is near the window. Avoid getting a booking for an aisle seat despite it being handy in case you need to go to the bathroom. Still, sitting in the aisle seat means that you will be disturbed by the other passengers and the cabin crew walking in the aisle next to your seat.
As for a window seat on a long haul flight, it will not only save you the trouble of getting disturbed by others, but also a wall to place your head against, if need be.
Ask the flight attendant to be moved next to the empty seat
If you are travelling on a long haul flight which by chance does not happen to be overbooked, then you can politely ask the flight attendant for a particular seat exchange. Most flight attendants are really accommodating towards passengers on long haul flights and if you ask them to move you to a window seat which has an empty seat next to it, it will be most beneficial for your night sleep.
You are going to have the luxury of having not one but 2 empty seats and that will offer you enough space for stretching your legs as well if you plan on sleeping through the entire flight.
A tip to remember here is to ask for the seat exchange as soon as you can because there might also be other passengers that might have the same idea in their heads.
Buy a nice travel pillow
One thing that everyone seems to pack on their long haul flights is the inflatable pillows that are U-shaped. However, what you might not know that nowadays there is a whole range of amazing travel pillows that one can choose from. Pillow materials are also now available in memory foam or the microbeads. While the soft pillows are comfortable to use they take a lot of room in the hang luggage.
We recommend buying a J-pillow which now only supports the neck but also the side of head and chin area when taking a nap on a long haul flight.
There is also another unique pillow available in the market named the TRTL Travel pillow which is basically a travel pillow disguised in form of an ordinary looking scarf.
Bring along your noise-cancelling headphones
One of the biggest barriers for sleeping on long haul flights is the noise. If you can somehow bear through some person’s coughing or a toddler crying after every few minutes, then there is the constant droning sound of the massive aircraft engines. All of these can be a major crisis for sleeping on the long haul flights. This is why we recommend investing a little in buying a good quality Noise Cancelling Headphone set. The way these headphone works is by picking up an ambient noise through its microphone and then generating a sound wave that creates the exact negative of the collected sound and thus mutes the sound altogether. There is also the option of listening to some sweet song on these noise cancelling headphones as well to help you drift to sleep on the long haul flights.
The only downside of these headphones is that they do not come cheap and the more expensive a headphone is, better is its functioning and durability. Be sure to remember that they are battery powered ones that need charging to allow them to work. So always bring a headphone by checking first its battery.
Put on a blanket while sleeping
A person planning to sleep on the long haul flight needs to be as much comfortable as they can and this means that they need to snuggle in a warm and comfy blanket. You can ask the flight attendant for a blanket but we recommend otherwise. The reason is that these blankets do not get washed that much often and might contain the germs of some poor soul suffering from cold and might ruin your travel purpose.
We recommend buying a travel blanket of your won which is light in weight but big enough to cover your whole body. This will allow for the person to be protected from the draught of the airplane’s air conditioned air.
Have your seatbelt Buckled up
The last thing that anybody would want while sleeping on a long haul flight is to be woken up by the flight attendant and asking you to buckle your seatbelt. While a passenger might not need to wear the seatbelt on the airplane expect at the time of take-off and landing; the aircraft can sometime suffer from extreme turbulence. In such cases, pilot turns on the seatbelt sign and this is why it is best to wear the one in advance before sleeping on a long haul flight.
A little tip here is to buckle the seatbelt over the blanket so if the flight attendant comes to your seat, she can see that you are already buckled in.
Block the light
Last but not least, the most essential tip for sleeping on a long haul flight is to block any light source. You have your pillow set, blanket on and headphones over the ears. Now simply take any ordinary Eye mask and wear it to block the lights to help you drift away to sleep faster.
Relax but do not drink alcohol
To catch a flight can be really stressful thing. You have to get to airport early and then move through the processes like the security and the baggage check in and also needs to wait for the baggage to be stowed while other passengers move in front of you and you have to wait for the whole thing to be over. After all this, when a person boards the plane and sits on their seat, they are already restless enough to get any kind of shut eye.
In such cases, most passengers tend to resort to alcohol to put their mind to ease. But we recommend strongly against this and instead recommend you drinking some non alcoholic beverage and relax your mind with a little reading or doing some puzzles. Alcohol might make a person feel drowsy quickly; it still results in poor quality of sleep. The REM (rapid Eye Movement) sleep is blocked by alcohol which can cause muscles to be more relaxed than they should be. This often leads to heavy snoring and this is going to make the other passengers really uncomfortable and one has to mind their manners when on a long haul flight.
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